


And Friend Received

by Mara



Category: Power Rangers Jungle Fury
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-18
Updated: 2013-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-15 09:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/847994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/pseuds/Mara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody was supposed to find where Fran was hiding. Especially not him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Friend Received

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place near the end of "Now the Final Fury".

Nobody was supposed to find her. That was sort of the point of hiding from all the Ra--all her friends. And of all the people to find her, it had to be _him._

"Fran?" Dom asked, peering into the alley behind Jungle Karma Pizza, the evening sun slanting into his hair. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No." She couldn't help the embarrassing sniff and snuffling sound and pulled her knees closer to her chest. "Please...could you, um, go away?"

"But you're..."

He waved a helpless hand and she couldn't resist rolling her eyes. "Crying. Thank you for noticing." Another almost hiccup and she tried to will Dom to go away by closing her eyes, but it didn't work and she heard his footsteps.

His arm was warm against hers when he slid down the wall to sit next to her. "Um. Why are you crying?"

She wasn't going to look at him, because this close he'd be seeing her face all red-nosed and red-eyed and hideous and he was still there. Why wasn't he going away?

"Fraaaaaaan. I'm waiting." He nudged her gently with his elbow. "It's me. You know I'm not going away until you tell me something."

She sniffed helplessly again, then gave up and turned away to blow her nose into a wad of tissues. This was officially the worst thing ever, worse than spilling drinks all over customers or setting the ovens on fire.

"Okay, you're starting to worry me. Should I go get RJ?"

"No!" She turned automatically to look at him and got caught, as she always did, but how handsome he was, the annoying man, with his laughing eyes and hair she wanted to ruffle and--

"Uh, Fran?"

Right. Crying. "It's nothing." She looked down at her hands and forced herself to stop wringing them.

"You're sitting in the alley, probably on some piece of garbage--"

"RJ makes Casey clean the alley when he's being extra annoying."

"--and I'm supposed to believe nothing's wrong? How dumb do you think I am?"

"I don't think you're dumb." 

She whispered the words, but he elbowed her again. "Thanks," he said. "We've established that I'm not dumb and that I'm not going away until you tell me what's wrong. So spill."

"Hmmph." Fran went back to staring at the ground in front of her.

"It's just that we were all up in the loft having a big celebration because we finally beat Dai Shi and Jarrod is free and we're all alive and I looked around and my favorite pizza baker was missing."

"Right."

"Hey, you are, y'know. Who else knows exactly how much pepperoni to put on it for me?"

She shrugged. 

"And I got to wondering why you weren't celebrating with everyone else."

She sat for what seemed like forever, watching a line of ants march across the alley and up a wall, hoping she could outwait him. He shifted a few times, but didn't show any signs of leaving. She wasn't going to say anything. Absolutely not. Just this once she could manage to not talk, not blab, not sound like a blithering idiot. She would... "I don't belong up there."

"What?" She could feel him whip around to look at her and she shrank further into a ball, hugging her knees tighter.

"I don't. All of you are superheroes and Rangers and Pai Zhua masters and--"

"Don't forget the two former supervillains and a guy who used to be a fly."

She snorted. "What I mean is that you're all someone special, someone who's been places and done things and the most important thing I've ever done is invent a new pizza for RJ."

"Wow." 

Burying her face in her knees, she found the tears welling up again. Of course Dom agreed. What did she expect? 

"I had no idea you felt that way. I guess...we take you for granted, don't we?"

That startled her enough that she lifted her head slightly and peered at him over the bend of her arm. The sun was almost set, but she thought he looked upset in the dim light.

"We just run off and dump everything on you and don't even say thank you."

"I don't mind. Really. I mean, I do a little bit, but you have important things to do and it's okay somebody has to take care of--"

"Breathe, Fran."

She took in a gasping breath. "It's okay."

"It's not okay if you feel like you don't belong up there with the rest of us."

"Well, what did I do to deserve being there?" She winced at how whiny that sounded.

"Who talked Lily down when Theo chickened out of asking her out for the hundredth time?"

"Me?"

"It sure wasn't me. I was too busy laughing at the look on her face and you fussed over her and made her a pie."

She smiled a little at the memory. "Yeah, I did."

"And who threw Casey the surprise party?"

"Well, RJ did help--"

"Whose idea was it to throw Casey a party when he was feeling homesick?" he said again.

"I guess...me," she said.

"Who helped Theo pick out Lily's birthday present so it wouldn't suck?"

"Me."

"And who watched over us on the monitors, so that when five exhausted Power Rangers came back from a fight there was someone there to make sure we ate something and got some sleep?"

"Me."

He leaned over until they were almost nose to nose. "Most importantly, who took care of JKP and made sure RJ had a home to come back to when the fight was over?"

"Me," she whispered.

"You. So don't tell me you don't deserve to be in the loft on the day we finally win." He stood in one fluid motion, holding out his hand. "Coming?"

It was nearly full dark in the alley as she looked up at him and she couldn't see his expression. He wouldn't joke about something like this, right? Finally, she held out her hand and he pulled her up, putting his arm around her waist. "Let's go," was all he said, leading her back into Jungle Karma Pizza.

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of the French countryside, sitting in a field eating baguettes and grapes, Fran built up the courage to lean over and kiss Dom. It started out a peck on the lips, but ended up taking a lot longer than that. Finally he pulled back, grinning at her. "My hero."

"Oh, you." She smacked his arm, unable to resist grinning back at him.

\--end--


End file.
